ERNEST BATSON PRICE (1890 - 1973)
(President, China Airways Federal, Inc. USA)
(1929-1929)

September 9, 2006 Tom, I am writing in regard to my grandfather, Ernest Batson Price. It seems my grandfather was involved with the creation of CNAC. He had been a Foreign Service Officer in Shanghai, Tientsen, (where my mother was born) and old Peking. Our family is still looking through old papers and we are trying to get more dates, places and people. (Note: US Consular Registration Certificate for Ernest Batson Price, 1916.) While he was with the State Dept. my grandfather met with Sun Yat-sen and others in the Chinese government. After my grandfather finished his tour with the State Dept., he worked temporarily for Standard Oil in China and then I don’t know what. My mother was born in 1916 in Tientsin (Tianjin) and stayed in China until 1929. My sister saw a picture of my grandfather in a photo at a San Francisco Intl Airport exhibit of Pacific Rim aviation history. I don’t know much more than that thus far. Ernest Price wrote, "The Russo-Japanese Treaties of 1907-1916 Concerning Manchuria and Mongolia" (1933). Also, our family is related to the Daniel Holtom family. My great Uncle Dan was a missionary in Yokohama, Japan, and performed the marriage ceremony between my grandmother, Florence Bentley, and my grandfather in Yokohama (circa 1914). My grandfather was born in Henzada, Burma, of missionary parents. My grandfather was what was known at the time in the Foreign Service as an “Old China Hand”, someone who could speak, read and write Chinese, and who understood Chinese culture. When I was a child visiting grandma and grandpa, it was always interesting to watch my grandfather write Chinese characters for relaxation. Sometimes, as I sit here at my desk in Uzbekistan, I think of what it must have been like to have been in China during the creation of a modern nation and witness the momentous events taking place. I hope to visit both Burma (Myanmar) and China before the end of my Foreign Service career. Take care, Steve Steven B. Morse E-mail If you would like to share any information about Ernest Batson Price or would like to be added to the CNAC e-mail distribution list, please let the CNAC Web Editor, Tom Moore know. Thanks!